San Francisco Mayor London Breed tapped a former prosecutor who campaigned against ousted District Attorney Chesa Boudin to replace him – while telling voters Thursday “there’s a lot of work” to be done to hold offenders accountable in the liberal city.
Breed appointed Brooke Jenkins as the city’s next district attorney after 61% of San Franciscans voted Boudin out of office during a recall election on June 8. The former prosecutor quit her job in Boudin’s office to campaign against her former boss.
Jenkins, 40, who is black and Latina, worked in the office for more than seven years before resigning in October due to “mounting dissatisfaction” with the direction of Boudin’s office,” Breed said.
The mayor said she selected Jenkins, one of three finalists for the job, after discussing the post with voters who both opposed and supported Boudin’s recall and wanted to “make sure that reforms are not forgotten” with the new district attorney.
“But that accountability had to be an important part of the equation,” Breed said at a City Hall press conference announcing her selection.
Brooke Jenkins, a former prosecutor for Chesa Boudin’s office, has been named as the new District Attorney of San Francisco. AP
San Francisco Mayor London Breed said she selected Breed for the job after discussions with voters who were in favor of and opposed Boudin’s recall. AP“We can and should have both in a city like San Francisco,” Breed continued. “This is not just about locking people up and throwing away the key. This is not what we’re about in this city.”
Breed said Jenkins, a Bay Area native, has the “necessary experience” to lead the district attorney’s office and understands both sides of the criminal justice system.
Jenkins, meanwhile, vowed to hold criminals responsible by focusing on the city’s open-air drug markets and to “no longer being indifferent” to property crimes.
“As your next district attorney, I will restore accountability and consequences to our criminal justice system here in San Francisco,” Jenkins said. “Violent and repeat offenders will no longer be allowed to victimize our city without consequences. Hate crimes will no longer be tolerated.”
Former District Attorney Chesa Boudin was ousted in a recall election on June 7 due to a rapid decline in San Francisco’s public safety during his term. APJenkins will serve in her role until November – when she’ll run in a special election to determine who will complete Boudin’s term through 2023. She said she’ll work to “restore order” in San Francisco by holding criminals accountable while incorporating “vital and important reforms” to the justice system.
“I know that together, if we keep united, we can make San Francisco a safer, stronger and more just place for everyone,” Jenkins said.
Prior to the recall election, Jenkins told the media that being a progressive prosecutor meant being “innovative about finding alternatives to incarceration” while trying to ensure that defendants don’t re-offend.
Boudin, meanwhile, has not ruled out running for the job again, telling the San Francisco Chronicle late last month that he became the scapegoat for the city’s surge in crime.
“A lot of my supporters and endorsements and donors and Democratic clubs that were behind me are urging me to run now, or in 2023,” Boudin said. “I’m committed, as I always have been my entire life, to doing the work to support our communities, to fight for a fairer system of justice.”
With Post wires
